The imaging device uses a wide-angle lens with a wide angle of view to capture an image of a subject in a wide area on a film or the imaging plane of the image sensor. Japanese Patent No. S61-028972 and No. H05-002204 disclose a wide-angle lens including a convex-shape lens on a subject side, for example. The convex portion of the wide-angle lens is generally formed to protrude from a device body. Also, there is an imaging device having a detachable or incorporated wide-angle lens which achieves the angle of view of 180 degrees or more.
If the imaging device is accidentally dropped or placed with the convex side of the wide-angle lens down, the wide-angle lens may be damaged or broken. To prevent the damage, several types of lens protectors for the wide-angle lens are available, such as a transparent, semi-spherical protector, a cylindrical protector with an openable top plate, and a detachable cylindrical protector.
Further, Japanese Patent No. 2992028 discloses a cover-type lens protector comprised of a transparent cylinder provided around a lens system projecting from a device body and a transparent plate to cover the opening of the cylinder, to protect a wide-angle lens in the manner not to narrow the angle of view thereof.
In recent years various types of electronic devices having photographic functions have been popular, for example, mobile devices such as notebook computer, smart phones, tablet terminals in addition to film or digital cameras. There are users' demands for the use of a wide-angle lens with a wider angle of view in such mobile devices without impairing the outer appearance and designs thereof. The mobile device also requires a lens protector for the wide-angle lens.
However, the known lens protectors described above are not suitable for the wide-angle lenses of the mobile devices. This is because the lens protector needs to be larger than a lens system protruding from a device body so that it requires a large area for mounting on the subject side of the wide-angle lens. Accordingly, the lens protector greatly protrudes from the device body, impairing the appearance of the mobile device.
Meanwhile, for the purpose of reducing the amount of protrusion of the lens protector from the device body, a subject-side lens of the wide-angle lens can be placed in a receded position. However, in this case the angle of view of the wide-angle lens may be blocked by the device body and limited.
Moreover, the detachable, cylindrical type is supposed to be taken off during photographing. If the device is accidentally dropped in shooting operation, the convex portion of the wide-angle lens cannot be protected.
Further, even the cover-type lens protector in Japanese Patent No. 2992028 has to be larger than the lens system so that it faces the same problem in largely projecting from the device body and impairing the physical appearance of the mobile device.